The Beginning of our Chilean Adventure

When planning our trip to South America, Chile was number one on our list, but after travelling through Peru and Bolivia, there have been times we have felt like we would like to quickly get through Chile and go back! The cost of living in Chile is significantly higher, so finding affordable accommodation and food has been a bit of a challenge. Instead of comparing the prices to Peru and Bolivia, we have to think about what it would cost back at home. The economic situations of Chile and Canada are likely more similar.

The best part about being in Chile is that there are a lot of beaches! In the long skinny country on the west coast of South America, you have volcanoes and beaches! We have definitely spent our fair share of time at the beach so far, and our favourite beach is at Caleta Portales in Valparaiso. The beach is right next to a fisherman’s market which may sound a little stinky, but makes it very exciting!  While walking to the beach, we couldn’t miss the flocks of pelicans waiting patiently near the market. They were waiting on the pavement next to the man cleaning the fish, on the roof of the fish market, and on top of large shipping containers stacked nearby. We watched as the fisherman tossed the remains of the fish to the pelicans. It was like spectators waiting for a ball being hit into the stands at a baseball game; once the scraps were thrown to them, pop, one pelican would grab it out of the air! There were no big struggles on the ground but there were still bossy seagulls hanging around waiting for any scraps they could find.

Birds weren’t the only scavengers waiting for free meals. Out in the water, next to the piers, sea lions were on constant alert for a fisherman walking with a bucket, which meant feeding time! And when it wasn’t feeding time, they would just lounge in the sun on the beach or play in the waves. The kids had a great time watching the sea lions swim back and forth and up onto the beach. Sometimes, the kids found fish scraps on the beach and threw them to the sea lions. And to think that we paid for a tour to see them lounging on the rocks off the coast in Peru. This is a much more exciting hands-on experience!

Being from a flat land far away from oceans, the power of the waves at the beaches has been very exciting for us! At first, I was very worried about the children and their swimming skills around the riptides, but it has become clear that so far it really isn’t too much of a problem. I have gone from telling the kids to ‘only go in as far as your ankles’ (be super careful), to ‘go in as far as your knees’ (be careful), to ‘go in as far as your waist’ (have fun and watch out), to ‘jump in! Dive in!’ But, it is pretty cold in the Pacific Ocean here, so the kids tend to play a bit in the water but frequently need to warm up in the sand!

David witnessed something pretty neat at the beach one day. After some research online he found one website that called it the “Argentinian Clap”, but since we are in Chile, perhaps it should be called the “South American Clap”. David heard many people nearby begin to clap in unison. This, of course, drew his attention. It turned out that a child was lost and the clapping was meant to get the attention of the parent that was missing a child. As the lost child was carried along, the clap moved down the beach with them. It was really neat seeing the community work together!

We were in Valparaiso for about 10 days and we went to the beach every day. We also made a quick stop in Pichilemu, which is known for its great surfing. David, Charlie and Adeline had a lesson one day and braved the cold water for some fun in the waves, but one of the most interesting parts of our visit in Pichilemu was another discovery by David.

\There was a beach very close to our accommodation (just south of Pichilemu) that, during the day, seemed practically deserted. It wasn’t the beach where we would surf, but it was a great beach for exploring. A black sand beach with very fine sand and we could find shells amongst the pools of water trapped but large volcanic rocks. While it seemed deserted in the day, more people came to the beach when the sun started to set. We went down to the beach to watch the sunset, but all the other people came to the beach to hunt for crabs!

As the sun was setting, you could see the silhouettes of crab hunters standing at the edge of the water in the mist of the salty water. They would walk to the rhythm of the waves; backwards while the waves came in, and forwards when the waves went out. And once in a while, when the waves went out, one might see a little bump in the sand. A crab! And the crab hunter would suddenly burst into a sprint and grab the crab with a gloved hand and put it in their pail waiting on shore. They had to be quick, because if another wave came before they grabbed the crab, it would be gone for good!

When we were exploring the beach earlier in the day, we saw a glove sitting on a rock, so we walked back to that rock, and it was still there! So we took the glove and tried some crab hunting ourselves. Some of the crab hunters let us try picking up one of their crabs from their bucket, and after feeling the power of their claws, Adeline let David and Charlie do the hunting for our family. It took an immense amount patience and concentration to wait for a crab to finally be swept up with a wave, and as the sun set further down and then below the horizon, it was harder and harder to see the crabs. The boys worked hard as the girls cheered from the shore, and then it happened. David saw the crab and after a mad dash, he was able to grab the crab and throw it back to shore! After playing with the crab for a little bit, we decided to give it to one of the crab hunters and head home to bed!

That might just be the last of the Chilean beaches on the ocean for a while, because we are now going to head inwards towards the Lakes Region!

Adventures in Bolivia

Before visiting Bolivia, all we knew was that Bolivia was a relatively poor country compared to Canada and that it was rich in superstition. After leaving Bolivia, I wish that we planned to stay longer because it was relatively cheap living, beautiful and it never ceased to surprise us with its diversity of traditions and modern developments.

We decided to use the company Bolivia Hop to get from Cusco, Peru to Copacabana, Bolivia (and eventually to La Paz). It was nice using this company because there is an English speaking guide who can explain the ins and outs of the country and what was happening at each of our stops. It was another night bus, and after riding the extremely comfortable Cruz Del Sur, this was not a fun ride. The seats did not recline very far, and it was very difficult to find a comfortable position. Travelling tired, with tired children is not the funnest experience...

1. Copacabana

Our first stop in Bolivia was Copacabana, a small town on Lake Titicaca. We only stayed for one night, but looking back, we probably would have enjoyed a few more days. One of the first things we noticed were the cars! Many of the cars were decorated with flowers and streamers. It seemed as though there was a festival they were decorating for, but through a little research we found that people like to bless their cars for good luck (for safe travels and no accidents). As we walked around the small town, we came to the Plaza 2 de febrero (main square) and were surprised to see line ups of cars and vans, two by two, getting decorated. There were also many stalls selling flowers (real and fake), small religious figures to attach on the outside and inside of cars, streamers and other colourful decorations. And to top it off, they also sold champagne and Coke that I believe, though we never witnessed it, they spray on cars. It seemed like quite the long process because we watched a van being decorated for over 30 minutes and it seemed like they were still adding touches when we left.

Another adventure for us in Copacabana was climbing Cerro Calvario, a tall hill right next to the city. While walking to the hill we saw a sign that read “Cerro Calvario” and pointed to a beaten path going upward, so one would think that it was the proper route up the hill. It was a challenging and rough climb up, and at times, we weren’t quite sure if we were on the path or not, but if we just looked upwards we could easily see which way we needed to go. Sometimes we saw people coming down the hill which confirmed that we must be on the right path! The top had a beautiful view of the land around and it was dedicated to the Stations of the Cross. As we walked across the top of the hill, we found…..the real pathway up the hill! A pathway constructed by bricks and stones with gradual steps zigzagging down. While this would have been a much easier climb, Adeline noted that the other way was much more interesting and fun!

Copacabana was a great place to visit because of the lake life for the kids. Being near the water and having a sandy beach to play in was so relaxing. Water and sand are definitely the two best ingredients for a family trip! Those two ingredients can entertain a child (and an adult) for hours on end! And, we got to have fresh trout for dinner! If you read our previous post about the Uros Islands, you would have read that the trout was introduced from North America and is now an invasive species in Lake Titicaca, so we didn’t feel badly when we each had our own fish for dinner.

2. La Paz

Back on the bus and off to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world (kind of...Sucre is really the capital of Bolivia, but only in name. The government sits in La Paz). La Paz is very neat in that it is shaped like a bowl; high mountain sides and city down in the bottom of the dish!

We arrived late at night and this was why I was most grateful we had chosen to ride with Bolivia Hop. Big cities can be a bit intimidating when you first arrive, but big cities in a country where you cannot communicate and have no access to a phone or the internet can be extremely intimidating! Our guide made sure that everyone on the bus made it to their hostels. When it was our turn, he jumped off the bus, took us right to the door and rang the bell because the door was locked. Nobody answered for 5 minutes… 10 minutes.... He kept pressing the bell and he even ended up calling a number he found by spying through a window. Finally after about 15 minutes, our host came to let us in. If we hadn’t had our guide, that situation would have been pretty disastrous! We slept in pretty late the next day!

Our first real day in La Paz was Sunday, and it is a good thing we arrived when we did! La Paz is bustling with activities for kids and families on weekends! After reading blog posts and websites written by other families, we found that one of the main roads, Prada Boulevard, had a festival for children. Unfortunately we woke up so late that I think that we missed most of it, but we still had a chance to see some street performers. If you haven’t seen our Instagram post of the rocking skeleton puppets, you should have a look! 

I was pretty disappointed in missing the children’s events, but as we stopped to figure out what to do next, we heard music and followed our ears, which ended up taking us to their Central Park. Wowee! What a Central Park they have in La Paz! We saw two separate fairs with carnival rides, a music stand where a band was playing cover songs from bands such as Green Day and Guns and Roses, a big BBQ cooking up pigs, and street vendors with all sorts of goodies! There also seemed to be a soccer tournament going on in the soccer fields in the park and we also saw people lined up outside their open air theatre for some other event going on! 

After eating some lunch and taking a ride on the Ferris Wheel, we decided to just keep walking to see what we could see and soon we found ourselves on a huge boardwalk, about a kilometre long, that took us high above the streets all the way to Pipiripi (La Paz’s Children’s museum). It cost us about $5 (Canadian) for the whole family to ride up their funicular and explore the museum for the rest of the day. There were science themes, lots of hands on fun and a focus on reusing materials for play. We could easily have spent another couple of days there, and it would be easy to afford since it was only about $5 for a family of 4!

The next day we spent on the Mi Teleférico (the world’s largest and highest aerial cable car urban transit system). There are several lines connecting the city and we just rode line to line. It was a fun way to see a bird’s eye view of the city! Sometimes we would leave the station, have a play in a local park, and get back on again. This also was a very inexpensive activity. About $5 Canadian for the whole family. Mi Teleférico is highly recommended by Charlie and Adeline!

3.Coroico

As exciting and fun as La Paz was, it is always nice to get away from the big cities! We wanted to find a place to just kick back and relax for a while, so we headed on a minibus to Coroico, a small town about 3 hours out and down from La Paz. And goodness, the drive was one of the most memorable drives I have ever been on. Being driven in a minibus in Bolivia is an experience in itself. People do not wear seatbelts (sorry mom), kids sit on laps of parents in the front (not us, don’t worry mom), there are lines on the roads, but the drivers don’t always follow them. The roads aren’t always in great condition...but that is how we were going to get to Coroico (Even the Bolivian man sitting next to David crossed himself once. If he was scared, should we be?). The drive to Coroico was once along the “Most Dangerous Road in the World”, but a new, paved road has been made. Many tourists ride the old road on mountain bikes, but we decided against it (you’re welcome mom), partially because there weren’t bikes that would fit Charlie and Adeline. And the clouds...wow! We drove through a cloud forest (a valley where clouds are trapped) and we were just amazed at the sights (or lack thereof) the whole way down! Our hostel was on the side of the mountain, so throughout the day, we had impressive views of the cloudy valley below and the mountains peeking above!

Math class with a beautiful view at our hostel.

From Coroico, we were able to visit La Senda Verde, a wildlife sanctuary that was once an eco-lodge. People kept dropping off injured animals, or animals that were illegally taken and sold as pets, and now they have a sanctuary full of animals from parakeets to monkeys to caimans. This might just be one of Adeline and Charlie’s favourite places so far. Move over Disney World! 

The bridge to Sende Verde (only two people allowed on the bridge at a time!)

We had a guide take us through the sanctuary, but first we had to go to the restaurant and take everything of value out of our pockets because the local capuchin monkeys like to go through pockets and have been known to rip up money or run off with it! We got to observe all the different animals that they care for while walking through a chain link cage for the humans. It was funny being the ones in the cage. We will remember the caiman enclosure the best because that is where a curious capuchin came to investigate Charlie and Adeline. We had to leave the human cage to see the caiman enclosure, and that is where the capuchin spotted us. It walked overtop of the roof and jumped right on Charlie’s shoulder, immediately peeled off the sticker on his hat, undid the Velcro and zipper on his raincoat and started exploring! What a monkey! Then he saw Adeline, reached over and knocked her hat off, climbed on her back and sat there until our guide took it off, then back to Charlie again. We had to leave the enclosure because it wouldn’t leave Charlie and Adeline (which was hilarious and exciting for us, but the staff didn’t think that it was so great as this was a wild monkey).

We had a little bit of time to sit and wait while a cab was called for us to go back to Coroico. While we waited, we sat with Maruca, the grandma spider monkey who likes to cuddle. Maruca is the only ‘wild’ animal allowed in the human cage. Maruca has a sad story. She was bought by a woman who abused her. She was hit frequently, which is obvious by her broken nose and misaligned jaw. Apparently one time she fought back and bit the lady, who ended up punishing her by pulling out some of her teeth! Thankfully she now has a home where she can relax and live in peace with only the occasional argument with the dog. If you sit down, Maruca will come over and sit and cuddle right in your lap. She is known as the grandma because she is 27 years old and most spider monkeys only live to 20 years old. I am so thankful that there is a place for her and other animals in her situation.

4. Uyuni Salt Flats

After our time in Coroico, we went on a tour to the Uyuni Salt Flats, a tour of amazingly different terrains and flamingos in the wild!  Nothing can prepare you for the Salt Flats and my words will never be able to describe the incredible feeling of being somewhere completely different, like being on a different planet. At times it reminded us of home, the white landscape was like snowy fields around Winnipeg, but it was hot! And the way the salt flats create almost pentagon shapes everywhere, like an enormous salt tapestry, is incredible. 

Many people like to take photos here that play with perspective. We took our fair share of photos too. You can see them on our Instagram feeds: @greatbigfamilyadventure and @vida_sabatica. Our guide was practically a professional photographer. He lined us up and told us what to do and took most of the pictures.

One of the most exciting parts of this tour was that there was a lot of open space around us, so we could play with our ball and frisbee. Most places in Bolivia and Peru did not have parks or open spaces to play (at least not where we were), and so this was such a treat! There were times where we had a chance to explore an old island or go on a short tour, but really, the kids just wanted to play. So we did.

The second day was spent moving from lagoon to lagoon where there were flamingos! I actually had never thought about where flamingos live in the wild, but here they were! Flamingos were not the only animals we saw. We got to stop in a valley and walk amongst llamas, were visited by some viscachas (relatives of chinchillas) at lunch and we also spotted an Andean ostrich with its baby chicks. Who knew, ostriches in Bolivia? The other exciting part of the day was exploring the rocks! It is very windy in the Atacama desert, and many of the old volcanic rocks have been eroded by the wind into fantastic shapes. One of the tourist destinations is to the Rock Tree where there is a rock, you guessed it, shaped like a tree. But along the way there, I saw other rocks shaped in a similar way, and right next to the rock tree, were amazing rocks that the kids and David enjoyed climbing. And they weren’t the only people climbing the rocks. It is a wonder that there isn’t a climbing company taking advantage of this space, or even the companies using that as a draw on their tours...maybe soon…

The last day was simply being taken to the Bolivian-Chilean border, which was humorous because Bolivia is considered a very poor country and Chile is not, and that is very obvious at the border. The Bolivian road up to the border is gravel, and the Chilean is paved with bright yellow lines. The Bolivian building is very simple and run down, and the Chilean building is more modern. The sign for Bolivia looks as though it was made and erected in the 1930s, and the Chilean sign was shiny and new.

We really enjoyed our stay in Bolivia. Looking back, I wish that we had stayed longer. But who knows, maybe we will head back. We still have 6 months to go...